


One Who Knows Nothing Can Understand Nothing

by violethowler



Series: Kingdom Hearts III Meta [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Analysis, Character Study, Essay, Meta, Meta Analysis, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Spoilers - Kingdom Hearts III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-24 03:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17696579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violethowler/pseuds/violethowler
Summary: A one-page essay analyzing the beauty of Xehanort's Heartless' last words.





	One Who Knows Nothing Can Understand Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a post on Tumblr complaining about Ansem SoD's last words being OOC and I seriously disagreed with that assumption. So here's my take on why his last words were a brilliant call back to the first game.

Can we talk about the beauty of “Ansem’s” final words? (Yes, yes, Xehanort’s Heartless and all, I still call him and DiZ by the names they were originally introduced as because constantly typing out Xehanort’s Heartless gets old) How it brings things full circle not just to the first game of the series, but to Xehanort’s entire backstory?

Long before any of the narrative tangling that would come later, all the way back in Kingdom Hearts I, Ansem’s characterization as derived from his reports that we’d been collecting throughout the game, was that of a scholar with a thirst for knowledge and research so great that he had no qualms about casting away his ethics, his humanity, and even his physical form in order to find the answers he sought. His first interaction with Sora in the Secret Place before the Destiny Islands fell to Darkness was chiding him for his ignorance of what he was getting into. When they meet again at the End of the World, Ansem expresses disappointment that Sora has learned nothing on his journey (Sora did learn things on his journey, just not the things Ansem considered important).

And that thread continues even in throughout later games. To quote the [Fridge Brillaince page for Kingdom Hearts over on TVTropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fridge/KingdomHearts):

 

> “When KH2 was first released, a lot of people were pissed that the person we originally thought was Ansem was in fact his apprentice, Xehanort, and that his motivations for studying the darkness seemed to be much more **For the Evulz** than the **Well-Intentioned Extremist** we originally pictured him as. Then, in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, we meet Master Xehanort, who appears to be even more of a **Card-Carrying Villain** , coming across almost as an **Expy** of Emperor Palpatine. The thing is, Xehanort's characterization is actually pretty consistent throughout the series, even if his appearance and intermediate goals vary from game to game. His interest in darkness and Kingdom Hearts has always been academic, and his reports in Birth By Sleep show that he wasn't always as obsessed with them as he is now, maintaining the **He Who Fights Monsters** aspect established as far back as the first game. Almost everything we knew about "Ansem" from the first game still applies to Xehanort as he is now, even if the specifics differ.”

Both the Ansem Reports of KH1 and the Xehanort Reports of BBS establish that regardless of the horrible things he does to manipulate those around him, Xehanort’s ultimate core motivation in every incarnation is the pursuit of knowledge. The specific details may vary from one version of himself to another, but the broad characterization of Xehanort as a man who will do all these immoral things For Science remains unchained after sixteen years.

His desire to leave Destiny Islands as Riku wanted to in the original game also reflects that. Both knew that there was more to the universe than the islands they’d grown up on. Their desire to leave was driven by the urge to learn what was out there. They wanted to go out and expand their horizons, to see what mysteries lay beyond the islands. In a way, Ansem’s acknowledgement that Riku’s strength is “vaster than Darkness” felt to me like a part of Xehanort recognizing the similarities between them and giving a verbal tip of the hat to Riku as a mirror of what Ansem’s original human self _could_ have been.  

But back to my main point, what are Ansem’s last words as he fades away for good in Kingdom Hearts III? “There is more to seek, so go forth now, and seek it.” He’s encouraging Riku and Sora to keep expanding their knowledge, to keep looking for new mysteries and secrets. Just the kind of thing you’d expect to hear from someone who’s driving motivation was the pursuit of knowledge. And as far as last-last words go for the final boss of the original game, it felt like things had come full circle.


End file.
